When Bosch Fawstin tried to sell the first chapter of his serialized
graphic novel The Infidel through conventional channels, he received
word that the distributor he had chosen rejected the comic
as “violating our terms of service.” That general phrase no doubt
referred to Fawstin’s use of storytelling elements that make Western
publishers nervous: unapologetic American heroes delivering payback
to jihadists who are motivated not by “blowback” against the CIA and
colonialism, but by the religious imperative of Islam itself.

Fawstin is a cartoonist who scored a nomination for an Eisner Award –
the comics industry equivalent of an Oscar – for his debut graphic
novel, Table For One. He’s also a FrontPage contributing artist and
the author/illustrator of ProPIGanda: Drawing the Line Against Jihad,
a collection of images and essays that serve as a companion piece to
The Infidel. Feeling certain that the distributor’s rejection of
chapter one didn’t bode well for chapter two, Fawstin decided to
digitally serialize the works himself from his blog site. Download
them here.

A story within a story, The Infidel is about twin brothers Killian
Duke and Salaam Duka whose lives veer in polar opposite directions
after the 9/11 attacks. Killian (who just happens to closely resemble
his creator Fawstin) responds to the atrocity by creating a counter-
jihad superhero comic book called Pigman, while Salaam submits fully
to Islam. Pigman’s battle against his archenemy SuperJihad is
mirrored in the escalating conflict between the twins. The novel also
reflects Fawstin’s own personal journey from Albanian Muslim to
apostate to Ayn Rand devotee.

In The Infidel, Killian’s character Frank Warner (note the
implication of the last name) watches the Twin Towers fall on 9/11
and knows immediately that Islam is the reason. He begins “thinking
about all the terrible things that must be done to those who had a
good day on 9/11.” Frank dons a costume made of pigskin, which
Muslims consider unclean, to become his alter ego, Pigman, to take on
jihad. He travels to the Afghan-Pakistani border to confront al Qaeda
and Osama bin Laden face-to-face in a cave hideout (The Infidel #1
was completed just prior to bin Laden’s actual death at the hands of
SEAL Team Six.) The result is an action-packed catharsis.

Killian’s Muslim friend asks him, “How do you think true Muslims will
respond to your work?” “They’d kill me for it if they could,” the
cartoonist replies. Then why do it? “I love seeing this enemy get
what it deserves at the hands of a ruthless hero.”

Killian confronts a group of Muslim proselytizers near the WTC ruins;
the resulting scuffle comes to the attention of “Bo Riley” of “Ox
News,” who questions Killian on his talk show about Pigman being
perceived as “an insult to 1.5 billion Muslims.” Killian responds:

I’ve heard that 1.5 billion times. Your average Muslim is morally
superior to Mohammed. They’re individuals who may or may not be the
problem. Organized Islam is.

Riley brings on an opposing viewpoint from a CAIR-type organization,
a character named Soze Keiser (a nod to The Usual Suspects’
mysterious evil mastermind Keyser Soze), who complains with typical
CAIR hyperbole that in the Muslim mind, the offensive Pigman is the
equivalent of 9/11.

Later, Killian Duke appears on a panelist of cartoonists who discuss
how their art expresses their varied responses to 9/11 and the
Islamic threat. Needless to say, Killian’s blunt viewpoint is the
only one that doesn’t reek of cultural guilt and outright
appeasement. One panelist argues with him that “religion isn’t to
blame. Those who perverted religion are.” To which Killian
responds, “Jihadists have allowed Islam to pervert them, not the
other way around.”

Killian’s twin Salaam, angered that his brother’s work is so
flagrantly disrespectful (read: truthful) to Islam and Muslims, tries
unsuccessfully to dissuade his brother to stop, then decides to teach
him a violent lesson in censorship. This only inspires Killian to
take matters up a notch in his art.

In The Infidel #2, jihadists strike another terrible blow against a
symbolic target of the United States. Instead of wringing his hands
and wondering “why they hate us,” as the Western cultural elites
tended to do after 9/11, Pigman decides to hit the enemy tit-for-tat,
or “an icon for an icon,” as Fawstin puts it. The result is a
devastating retaliatory blow.

I have written previously about Frank Miller, creator of The Dark
Knight Returns and the graphic-novels-turned-films 300 and Sin City,
and one of the most influential and well-known cartoonists alive. His
120-page graphic novel Holy Terror took on the subject of jihad too,
but to a disappointing reception from fans and reviewers. I asked
Fawstin recently if there were any other cartoonists out there
besides him and Miller confronting jihad in their artwork. He replied,

Miller is the only other, but since he has said in interviews about
Holy Terror, “I don’t know squat about Islam,” he’s taken himself out
of it. So as far as cartoonists working in comic books go, in terms
of critically taking on Islam and its jihad directly and explicitly –
I truly don’t know of anyone else in comics doing so besides myself.
Hard to believe.

In one sense, yes, it is hard to believe that graphic novelists are
so unwilling to address the most serious civilizational threat facing
the Western world today. And yet it’s perfectly easy to believe as
well, since our pop culture response to this clash of civilization
versus barbarism has been largely timid: denial, self-censorship,
self-flagellation, appeasement. In a FrontPage interview, Fawstin
observed that “comics have been as truthless and as gutless as any
corner of pop culture about Islam and Jihad since 9/11.”

Until The Infidel. As Killian Duke says,

For me, there is before 9/11 and after 9/11. Seeing fellow Americans
jumping to their deaths from the Towers brought out in me… a desire
to kill. But I’m not a soldier. I’m an artist.